Tag Archives: Northumberland Strait
Lobster carapace size increase remains a concern at some P.E.I. ports
Miminegash lobster fishermen are claiming to be negatively impacted by the two-millimetre carapace increase imposed this year. One fisherman, loading up with bait for the next day’s fishing, said Wednesday he is throwing back a lot of lobsters that are just under the minimum length. Shane Costain, captain of the Miminegash Maiden, said his catch took a big dip on Tuesday. He said a lot of lobsters he is throwing back would have been legal size if not for this year’s increase. “The measure is hitting us hard,” he insisted. >click to read<14:49
Fall lobster fishery is underway in Lobster Fishing Area 25
A crowd was on the dock with cameras, smart phones and cheerful waves as loaded lobster boats sailed out the mouth of Miminegash Harbour at 6 a.m. Thursday. They were there to see the fishermen off on setting day, the official start of the fall fishery in Lobster Fishing Area 25. The scene was repeated at wharves from Borden to Skinners Pond in the Northumberland Strait, and around North Cape at Seacow Pond and Tignish. >click to read<11:08
P.E.I. fisherman prepare for fall lobster season
Lee Knox is hoping the forecast for this Thursday’s setting day of relatively light wind of up to 15 knots holds, as it will allow for good conditions for fishermen to unload their traps.,, The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has a conference call with port representatives set for this morning to assess setting day weather conditions and make the decision on whether the season opens Thursday, as scheduled, or gets delayed. Knox is anticipating it will get started on time. Approximately 218 western P.E.I. fall fishermen share Lobster Fishing Area 25 in the Northumberland Strait with mainland fishermen from Chatham, N.B., nearly to Amherst, N.S. >click to read<
Pulp fiction on a glorious summer weekend
The province churned out a little pulp fiction as another glorious summer weekend began. “Any decision,” according to the scripted words of Nova Scotia’s Environment Department, “must be based on science and the best available evidence.” Any decision, of course, is one decision, namely whether effluent from the Northern Pulp Mill will be pumped out into the middle of the Northumberland Strait for dispersal with the currents. Having shuffled the cabinet the day before Friday’s mass rally to protest the pipe plan crowded the old town of Pictou and its harbour, the government could pretend it didn’t have a minister briefed-up to speak to the issue. >click to read<10:00
Fisherman questions how province can ‘be both the regulator and the sponsor’ for mill’s treatment plan
There was no trust for the province’s Department of Environment on Pictou’s wharves or in its harbour on Friday. “Trust gap? There’s no trust, it’s more than a gap,” said Allan MacCarthy. The Caribou fisherman had brought his vessel, The Red Trapper, to join hundreds of other fishing boats from around Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick for a protest in Pictou Harbour. They were met by a large crowd that also came from around Atlantic Canada to march down to meet them at the Pictou Marina. “The provincial government is heavily compromised in this,” said MacCarthy. “They are paying for it — everybody knows that. So how are they going to be both the regulator and the sponsor?” >click to read<09:11
Fishermen not willing to gamble on Northern Pulp effluent pipe – protest on land, sea Friday
Wayne Noel knows a little something about trust. After 37 years of fishing, some days trust is all he has. He has to trust the lobsters will be in the traps and that his sons, Mike and Brian, will be there to do the heavy lifting when he can’t. He trusts that his fellow fishermen will respond when he is in trouble and that his boat, Tall Tales, will take him to and from his fishing grounds without fail. He admits his fishery has disappointed him from time to time, but his trust has never been broken. >click to read<
Northern Pulp effluent protest on land, sea Friday – A #NoPipe land and sea rally will be held Friday on Pictou’s waterfront with people marching in the streets and boats sailing into the harbour to show their concerns over Northern Pulp’s plans to place an effluent pipe into the Northumberland Strait. >click to read<08:06
Fishing lobster aboard the Jaxton Brock in the Northumberland Strait
The piercing sound of a winch shattered the predawn ocean calm as a yellow trap was hauled up from the Northumberland Strait’s pitch-black waters onto the Jaxton Brock’s deck at about 4:20 a.m. It was the first catch of many on Wednesday and inside the traps were a true Pictou County delicacy: lobsters..,, The Jaxton Brock is a brand-new vessel that still smells of fresh paint and is named for Warren and Suzanne’s grandson, expected later this year. Warren was proud of their boat’s performance. “It turns on a dime,” he said. >click to read<10:10
Fishermen prepare for lobster season
Warren Francis and his family were in high spirits as they readied their brand-new fishing boat at Pictou Landing’s wharf under a sunny spring sky for the upcoming lobster season starting next Monday.,, But fisherman Ronnie Heighton, who sits on the Gulf of Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board, said that fishermen plying the Northumberland Strait for catches can “live quite happily.” “There’s never a bad day when you fish lobster,”,, However, Heighton states that danger lies ahead for fishermen who rely on the Strait for their livelihoods.>click to read<12:00
Fishermen ask MLAs to avoid another costly mistake with Northern Pulp effluent
The government of Nova Scotia has been working closely with Northern Pulp on a proposed new effluent-treatment facility for the mill. At least $300,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent on designing the proposed system that would discharge millions of litres of pulp effluent into the Northumberland Strait every day. Our fishing industry will be directly affected, but we were not consulted about the design, and we have received no response to a request to meet with the provincial environment minister. Ronald Heighton, President, Northumberland Fishermen’s Association >click to read<11:20
Ice still holding up crab fishery
The Canadian Coast Guard still has about five to seven days of ice-breaking operations around New Brunswick’s Acadian Peninsula, the acting superintendent of Ice Operations Atlantic, Trevor Hodgson, reported Wednesday. Ice had started its normal regression from the Gulf of St. Lawrence by early March but a few days of northeasterly winds in mid-March reversed that trend. “It hit the Gulf pretty hard, he said. “It essentially took all the ice that was in the Gulf and compacted it into three big piles,”,, >click to read<20:49
No pipe in the strait: fisheries groups and First Nations to Northern Pulp
They don’t want pulp effluent in the Northumberland Strait. An alliance has been forged among the Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board, the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA), the New Brunswick Fisheries Association and Pictou Landing First Nation. Their purpose is to publicly and officially oppose the proposed discharge of Northern Pulp’s effluent into the Northumberland Strait – and to demand a federal environmental assessment into the matter. >click to read<13:51
Maritime fishermen’s groups pull out of meetings with Northern Pulp
Groups representing fishermen’s associations in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. say they won’t meet with representatives from Northern Pulp unless the paper mill provides an alternative to its plan to pump treated effluent into the Northumberland Strait. On Monday, representatives from the Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board (GNSFPB), the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association and the Maritime Fishermen’s Union went public with the decision, which was announced at a meeting with Northern Pulp last Tuesday. “They’re asking us to take all the risk. One hundred per cent of the risk is going to be borne by the fishermen. If something goes wrong, it’s our fishery,” >click to read<14:47
Prince County P.E.I. fishermen assured effluent plans being opposed
It is 326 kilometres away, by road, but a pulp mill in Pictou County, N.S., figured prominently in the Prince County Fishermen’s Association’s recent annual meeting at the O’Leary Legion. The president of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association, Bobby Jenkins, and then P.E.I. Minister of Fisheries Alan McIsaac made it clear they are adamantly opposed to Northern Pulp pumping effluent from its mill into Northumberland Strait. All members of the Prince County Fishermen’s Association fish in the Northumberland Strait. >click here to read< 08:53 
LETTER: Need thorough, unbiased environmental study
I’d like to address publically, the situation in Pictou County involving Northern Pulp and the subsequent closure of Boat Harbor by 2020 with regards to the ‘replacement’ treatment plan which ultimately includes a pipeline for the treated effluent to be discharged into the Northumberland Strait which is part of the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.,,, It should also be noted that the new home of the end of the purposed pipeline is the heart of LFA 26. (Lobster Fishing Areas – there are 41 LFA’s in Canada, of them, LFA 26 as a whole is amongst the highest producers in tonnage of annual lobsters landed). I’m highlighting lobster as this is the main source of revenue for the 1000 plus fishers that fish this zone commercially. John Collins, Alma Road click here to read the story 18:48
Fishermen worry Northern Pulp treatment plan will create ‘dead zone’
Northern Pulp met with some of its toughest critics Monday as it opened public consultations on a new effluent treatment facility for the Pictou County pulp mill. Dustin MacKeil was one of dozens of skeptical fishermen invited for a private briefing by the company at the Pictou County Wellness Centre. “The lies from the government, the lies from Northern Pulp — how can you trust them? Their track record is no good at all,” said MacKeil. He believes the proposed outfall threatens several fisheries in the area. click here to read the story 09:56
UPEI leads three-year study on impact of pesticide run-off
The University of Prince Edward Island is taking the lead on a team of researchers examining the potential impact of agricultural pesticide run-off on lobsters in the Northumberland Strait. The three-year study is funded by a Strategic Partnership Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and brings together partners from UPEI, the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA) and Homarus Inc. — a non-profit organization managed by the Maritime Fishermen’s Union. “The lobster populations in the Northumberland Strait have been collapsed for quite a number of years and no amount of fisheries measures seem,,, Read the rest here 11:29
Lobster season opens on Northumberland Strait – Processors scramble to find plant workers
The lobster fishery opening on the Northumberland Strait Tuesday as lobster processors deal with new federal regulations which limit how many temporary foreign workers can be hired. The new regulations could create problems processing this season’s catch. “Let’s face it — it’s tough work, not everybody’s cut out for it,” said Nat Richard. “And certainly a lot of our older workers are retiring and younger people today aren’t looking to work in fish plants.” Read the rest here 09:34
Good hauls, lower prices expected as lobster season opens
ARISAIG — “I’ve got 11:58,” Gerard MacDonald called from the lobster boat’s bow. “I’ve got :58, too,” yelled another captain on the boat idling behind MacDonald’s vessel. “Imagine that,” declared MacDonald. “Our watches are synchronized.” Two minutes later, at the digital stroke of noon, they and the rest of the local lobster fishing fleet, held captive by ice for 11 days, charged past the Arisaig wharf breakwaters. Monday was trap-dumping day on the Northumberland Strait. Read the rest here 10:47
Icy strait sinks Arisaig lobster event – older fishermen say ice hasn’t delayed the fishery like this since 1967
The ice still blocking the fishing harbours of Northumberland Strait has forced the cancellation of the Arisaig Mother’s Day Lobster Dinner. For the first time in over 30 years, the fundraiser that draws 1,000 annually to the Arisaig Parish Community Centre will be cancelled. On Monday, Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced that the Northumberland Strait lobster season that usually begins May 1 will continue to be delayed until ice conditions improve. Read the rest here 11:33
Lobster catches high, prices low
RIVER JOHN – Lobster season ended on Monday in the Northumberland Strait, leaving Ronald Heighton, Northumberland Fishermen’s Union president, a chance to reflect. Read more here 08:18
